Paying commission

Yes that is the way it works. Cost of doing business.

Yes, sadly. Welcome to NYC

You can always look for no fee apartments. There are plenty of them as the owners are paying the broker. As to 15%, if the renting broker had to show the apartment to different people for 1 month 4-6 times as week, there is cost to it. In addition, some renters come represented by a broker and they get half of that 15%.

Curioustenant,
So you want to rent the one and only apartment you looked at?

Sometimes some of this is necessary to get a foothold in NYC. After you live here for a while you get a better feel of the ropes.

No one should be complaining about 15 percent commission when the market is flooded with no fee rentals. There was a time when there were very few no fee rentals and you had to pay 15 percent, which I certainly felt was too high as most apartments got rented in less than a week.

I remember I had a client in the early 90s, I was showing him a loft rental in SoHo. When we discussed the fees associated with this particular rental, he looked at me and deadpanned"I would rather stick pins in my eyes then pay you a 15% Commission". That sort of stuck with me as I had never heard that expression before. I use it to this day to make a point when I'm not going to do something :)

Just a little anecdote to lighten things up on a Sunday morning.

Keith
TBG

People don't have a problem paying $3,000 a month for a small walk-up studio facing a wall... But a commission?

I don't know 30, I think a lot of people have trouble paying 3K for what you described. However if they want to live in many of the Prime downtown neighborhoods of NYC they don't have a choice.

That said you do have a choice whether or not you want to work with a broker. if you do work with one, they're going to have to be paid one way or the other like it or not. Guess I'm just saying if you don't want to pay a fee make that clear to the agent you're calling or just don't use one.

Keith
TBG

If you don't like this particular option, then find something else. It's not like "open door - show property - take clients money - leave". It's a full-time job, and it should be paid.

I have sympathy for the original poster as most people moving to nyc do not understand that for every actual renter there are 20 people who did not rent from the broker they were working with despite seeing many apartments. The actual renter is paying for the service used by the other 20.

However, when there are plenty of no fee rentals, why complain?